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Friday, March 17, 2000
Wahine season
comes to an end
at WNIT
A 75-60 loss to St. Mary's
By Al Chase
yesterday eliminates Hawaii
in the first round
Star-BulletinMORAGA, Calif. -- Vince Goo knew that a major key to winning was to not let St. Mary's height advantage overwhelm his University of Hawaii women's basketball team.
The Wahine coach was right. The 46-32 rebounding edge by the Gaels played a big factor in St. Mary's eliminating Hawaii, 75-60, from the Women's National Invitation Tournament last night.
The Wahine, who ended the season at 20-9, rarely got a second shot on offense. In fact, four of UH's 12 offensive rebounds came in one sequence of shoot, miss, rebound, shoot, miss, rebound.
But that was only part of the story.
St. Mary's started fast, building an early 21-8 lead. The Gaels managed to withstand several runs by the Wahine, who never led during last night's first-round game.
The Gaels (20-9) will host Long Beach State, a surprise 87-63 winner over host New Mexico, tomorrow.
"We didn't respond very well to what went on in the game," Wahine senior Raylene Howard said. "We wanted to win so bad because we knew if we lost the season was over."Howard led the Wahine with 24 points to end her career with 1,786 points, third on the all-time list.
"You've seen the end of the career of a player who has been our most consistent player ever,'' said Goo. "Raylene is more consistent in all facets of the game than anyone I've coached.''
Kyla Evers had 11 points, four assists and one turnover in her final game. Hedy Liu and Maj Forsberg were held scoreless in their final games.
Last night, the Gaels came out in a man-to-man defense which the Wahine expected and tried to attack with their power game.
Hawaii was able to penetrate, but more bodies fell than shots and very few fouls were being whistled. Just 15 fouls were called in the first half vs. 29 in the second half.
"We got some bounces tonight and our defense was able to stop them when they went on a run," St. Mary's head coach Kelly Graves said.
A typical example came at the end of the first half when Tracy Morris fired up a running one-hander that bounced twice before caressing the net with two seconds on the clock. It gave St. Mary's a 34-28 halftime lead, and psychologically negated some of the emotion created by the Wahine comeback.
"We wanted to spread the floor and go inside to draw some early fouls. We knew we could do that," said Goo.
But, the whistles didn't blow often enough to make the Wahine's game plan work.
Morris, who needs five more points to become St. Mary's all-time leading scorer, was the Gaels' top gun in the first half, scoring all 13 of her points.
The second half belonged to the Dosty twins. Jerkisha, at 6-2, had 13 of her 21 points after halftime while the 6-3 Jermisha knocked down 12 of her 16.
It was a family affair as the two worked the low post, high post to perfection. The ball would go to one twin down low who, if unable to shoot, would kick it back to the other for a soft, sometimes uncontested, 8- to 10-foot jumper.
"We knew they would go high low and it worked because we hads to pressure their guards which opened things up a bit," Goo said. "Early on they had some open looks on the perimeter because we had to help on the big men inside."Obviously the Wahine couldn't be everywhere and the Gaels were quick to adjust their offense away from where Hawaii was applying pressure.
"They were really aggressive. It was an intense game and the coaches made it clear at halftime we had to regain the low post position," said Jerkisha Dosty.
The turning point, according to Goo, came right after two free throws by Christen Roper had cut St. Mary's lead to 55-48 with 8:20 to play.
The next time the Wahine came up court, it looked like a St. Mary's player knocked a UH pass away with her leg, but kicking the ball wasn't called.
Instead, Jerkishma Dosty was fouled by Roper on a fast-break layup attempt, sank both free throws, and St. Mary's retained possession because Roper's foul was ruled intentional. Suddenly the Gaels were up by 12.
The Wahine cut the deficit to nine points, 66-57, with 3:31 to play, but made just one more basket the rest of the way. At the same time, the Gaels were converting nine of their last 10 free throws.
ST. MARY'S 75, HAWAII 60
Wahine (20-9)
FG FGA FT FTA REB A TP MIN Galloway 5 10 1 1 9 1 12 34 Howard 8 17 7 10 7 1 24 37 Liu 0 5 0 0 2 0 0 22 Lee 2 6 1 3 2 1 6 31 Evers 3 12 4 4 5 4 11 39 Forsberg 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 McMeeken-Rusc 1 5 0 0 0 1 2 12 Roper 0 2 3 4 3 0 3 16 Gabriel 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Puida 1 2 0 0 0 0 2 5 Team 4 Totals 20 59 16 22 32 8 60 200
Gaels (20-9)
FG FGA FT FTA REB A TP MIN T. Morris 5 12 1 5 9 6 13 35 Jerm. Dosty 4 6 8 13 10 4 16 28 Jerki. Dosty 8 14 5 6 8 0 21 34 Parker 2 5 5 7 4 2 11 33 Quintal 0 6 0 0 3 4 0 20 Abraham 1 3 0 0 1 0 2 8 Volmer 0 1 2 2 2 2 2 20 Miles-Threatt 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 J. Morris 3 4 3 5 1 0 10 17 Davis 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Kelly 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 3 Team 7 Totals 23 51 24 38 46 19 75 200 Halftime-St. Mary's 34, Hawaii 28
3-point goals--Hawaii 4-14 (Galloway 1-1, Howard 1-3, Lee 1-3, Evers 1-5, McMeeken-Ruscoe 0-2), St. Mary's 5-1 (T. Morris 2-5, Parker 2-3, J. Morris 1-2). Personal fouls--Hawaii 25, St. Mary's 19. Fouled out--Howard, Lee, T. Morris. Steals--Hawaii 5 (Evers 2, Galloway, Howard), St. Mary's 8 (Jermisha Dosty, Jerkisha Dosty 2). Blocked shots--Hawaii 2 (Liu, Roper), St. Mary's 4 (Jerm. Dosty, Parker 2). Turnovers--Hawaii 14, St. Mary's 17. Officials--Horton, Horky, Reynolds. A-1,285.
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii
